
#REDIRECT Megabyte
A megabyte (derived from the SI prefix ''mega-'') is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one million bytes. It is commonly abbreviated MB in writing (not to be confused with Mb, which is used for megabit) and meg in writing or speech. Because of irregularities in using the binary prefix in the definition and usage of the kilobyte, the exact number in common practice could be any one of the following: # 1 000 000 bytes (10002, 106): This definition is used in most networking contexts and discussions of storage hardware, including hard drives and DVDs. It is consistent with the SI prefix and most other uses of the prefix in computing, like in Megahertz#Megahertz_in_computing or FLOPS. # 1 024 000 bytes (1 024×1 000): This definition is used in a small number of storage contexts, most notably the "1.44 MB" (actually 1 474 560 bytes) "3.5-inch" (actually 90 mm) high-density floppy disk. # 1 048 576 bytes (10242, 220): This definition is used for nearly all discussions of computer memory (most easily manufactured in power-of-two capacities) and Compact disc. As of 2005, most software uses this definition to express storage capacity. This quantity may be referred to unambiguously as a mebibyte (see binary prefixes). ==Megabytes in use== As of 2005, the RAM capacity of most personal computer is measured in mebibytes, although the word "megabyte" is (mistakenly) used. For example, 512 "megabytes" of RAM actually designates 512 mebibytes, or a little less than 537 megabytes. Some rules of thumb: A megabyte stores roughly one book, or a hundred small images, or roughly a minute of audio data compression music. A digital photograph produced by a typical digital camera might be between 1–4 MB depending on the camera's image resolution and level of Image compression used. Until the introduction of hard drives with a capacity of one gigabyte or more, the capacity of hard drives was measured in megabytes. ==See also== * mebibyte * megabit * binary prefix * orders of magnitude (data) ==External links== *[http://www.numion.com/Calculators/Time.html Download time calculator] *[http://www.numion.com/Calculators/Units.html Unit Converter] Units of information th:เมกะไบต์
I don't think the "Megabytes in Use" section is very useful, particularly the part about a megaybte storing roughly one book, 100 small images, or 1 minute of audio. Given that books come in all sizes, designs, and point sizes, this comparison is virtually useless. 100 small images? How small? JPEG? GIF? PNG? TIFF? 1 minute of audio as mp3 at 128kbit is indeed roughly 1 MB. As a WAV file, it's 10 MB however. I think this part should either be removed or replaced with a more clearly defined standard of measurement. User:Pogo747 :It should either be presented as "very roughly" or else made more specific, like saying 128kbit/s as you said. - User:Omegatron 02:45, Jun 20, 2005 (UTC) We need to establish a convention for Wikipedia about the word "megabyte" because of the conflicting definitions, or else we cannot ever use the word. Should we go with SI, i.e. 106 bytes, and then use the new MiB for 220 bytes? user:AxelBoldt, Friday, April 26, 2002 If we accept this convention for the word "megabyte", we then should do the same for "kilobyte", i.e. 103 bytes and kiB for 210 bytes, too. I know children look rather confused when I explain to them that km is a 1000 m, while kB is 1024 bytes, because computers work better with binary numbers... user:Maria Renee Jenkins, Sunday, April 28, 2002 It is our task to follow standards, not ignore them. The plain reality is, majority usage for MB is the binary MB, and I ain't talking about a small majority either. The fact that "there are 1024 somethingorothers in a KB" is one of the very few things that Joe Average computer user really ''does'' understand. And where did this Wikipedia "policy" come from all of a sudden? It's a really bad idea. User:Tannin 13:18, 19 Sep 2003 (UTC) I picked the "policy" since after my question above, nobody expressed an opinion either way for quite some time. The policy does not ignore standards, but follows them. I agree with your assessment of majority usage, but I don't think it is a large majority: the average computer user encounters megabytes in four contexts: * hard drive capacity * memory size * file size * bandwidth Decimal megabytes are used in two of the four contexts. If you prefer we pick the opposite policy, then you need to invent a name for 106 bytes, and you need to make the case why Wikipedia should ignore international standards in favor of this new name. User:AxelBoldt 17:14, 21 Sep 2003 (UTC) :These are all good reasons to ''not'' take sides by pretending that one of the two major meanings of the word doesn't exist or is ''wrong''. Rather, when the difference matters, be explicit about the usage of the term. --User:Brion VIBBER 17:49, 21 Sep 2003 (UTC) ::I don't think that the sentence "This is the definition used in Wikipedia" pretends that the other meaning doesn't exist or is wrong; it just fixes a convention to avoid having to change many links from "megabyte" to "megabyte (i.e. 106 bytes)" or "megabyte (i.e. 220 bytes)". But I can live with that as well. User:AxelBoldt 09:29, 22 Sep 2003 (UTC) :::Proclaiming one to be the only definition used here would seem to require tracking down all uses of the term, deciding ''for sure'' which meaning was meant (possibly requiring further research), and either leaving it or changing it to "mebibyte". Letting normal usage stand ''allows'' further clarification where details are known and relevant. --User:Brion VIBBER 09:38, 22 Sep 2003 (UTC) == Binary million -vs- decimal million == After some double-checking and extensive web searching, it appears that the overwhelming majority consider a MegaByte to be a binary million, i.e. 10^20. As far as I can see, only hard drive and floppy drive manufacturers use a decimal million (10^6), primarily for marketing/misleading reasons. [http://www.makeitsimple.com/sections.php?artid=10 example]. I've worked in IT for 10 years, and I've never even heard of a Mebibyte. Regards, --User:Rebroad 19:58, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC) Just realised that this article has been misleading since May 2003 ([http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Megabyte&diff=894783&oldid=894719 see]) when the more commonly used usage was moved to 2nd in the list. --User:Rebroad 20:06, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC) This was pretty clearly not NPOV, reproducing the "it's a conspiracy by hard drive manufacturers" line. I've added some unambiguous cases--for instance, the CD standard uses base 2, whereas the DVD standards use base 10. I've also tried to make it clear that hard drive manufacturers almost always use base 10, while OS software and humans mostly use base 2. As a final note, I've added a comment about MHz to go along with the discussion of Mb, making it clear that although people measure RAM capacity in base-2, they measure RAM speed in base 10. Now, can we all switch to SI and stop being needlessly confusing? Please? User:Metamatic 21:05, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC) :Nooo! We must adamantly resist all attempts to correct that which we have grown comfortable with! :-) :''“Megabytes have always been base 2, and always been written as MB”, they sneer. “Everyone knows that 1MB is 1024KB, unless you’re talking about DVDs, or reading manufacturer specs for a hard drive, and that’s just the hard drive manufacturers being stupid. Everyone knows that ‘K’ on a computer means 1024; except for speeds, where it means 1000, except for file download speeds where it means 1024, except when it’s the speed of your modem, when it’s 1000. Everyone knows that. What, are you stupid?”'' [http://www.xciv.org/~meta/2005/02/25/#2005-02-23-units] - User:Omegatron 15:33, Jun 17, 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Megabyte:
MegaByte
Megabyte
Megabyte
Megabyte73
Megabyte73
Megabytes
Megabytes_per_second
Megabyte_per_second
MegaByte
#REDIRECT Megabyte
Megabyte
A megabyte (derived from the SI prefix ''mega-'') is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one million bytes. It is commonly abbreviated MB in writing (not to be confused with Mb, which is used for megabit) and meg in writing or speech. Because of irregularities in using the binary prefix in the definition and usage of the kilobyte, the exact number in common practice could be any one of the following: # 1 000 000 bytes (10002, 106): This definition is used in most networking contexts and discussions of storage hardware, including hard drives and DVDs. It is consistent with the SI prefix and most other uses of the prefix in computing, like in Megahertz#Megahertz_in_computing or FLOPS. # 1 024 000 bytes (1 024×1 000): This definition is used in a small number of storage contexts, most notably the "1.44 MB" (actually 1 474 560 bytes) "3.5-inch" (actually 90 mm) high-density floppy disk. # 1 048 576 bytes (10242, 220): This definition is used for nearly all discussions of computer memory (most easily manufactured in power-of-two capacities) and Compact disc. As of 2005, most software uses this definition to express storage capacity. This quantity may be referred to unambiguously as a mebibyte (see binary prefixes). ==Megabytes in use== As of 2005, the RAM capacity of most personal computer is measured in mebibytes, although the word "megabyte" is (mistakenly) used. For example, 512 "megabytes" of RAM actually designates 512 mebibytes, or a little less than 537 megabytes. Some rules of thumb: A megabyte stores roughly one book, or a hundred small images, or roughly a minute of audio data compression music. A digital photograph produced by a typical digital camera might be between 1–4 MB depending on the camera's image resolution and level of Image compression used. Until the introduction of hard drives with a capacity of one gigabyte or more, the capacity of hard drives was measured in megabytes. ==See also== * mebibyte * megabit * binary prefix * orders of magnitude (data) ==External links== *[http://www.numion.com/Calculators/Time.html Download time calculator] *[http://www.numion.com/Calculators/Units.html Unit Converter] Units of information th:เมกะไบต์
Megabyte
I don't think the "Megabytes in Use" section is very useful, particularly the part about a megaybte storing roughly one book, 100 small images, or 1 minute of audio. Given that books come in all sizes, designs, and point sizes, this comparison is virtually useless. 100 small images? How small? JPEG? GIF? PNG? TIFF? 1 minute of audio as mp3 at 128kbit is indeed roughly 1 MB. As a WAV file, it's 10 MB however. I think this part should either be removed or replaced with a more clearly defined standard of measurement. User:Pogo747 :It should either be presented as "very roughly" or else made more specific, like saying 128kbit/s as you said. - User:Omegatron 02:45, Jun 20, 2005 (UTC) We need to establish a convention for Wikipedia about the word "megabyte" because of the conflicting definitions, or else we cannot ever use the word. Should we go with SI, i.e. 106 bytes, and then use the new MiB for 220 bytes? user:AxelBoldt, Friday, April 26, 2002 If we accept this convention for the word "megabyte", we then should do the same for "kilobyte", i.e. 103 bytes and kiB for 210 bytes, too. I know children look rather confused when I explain to them that km is a 1000 m, while kB is 1024 bytes, because computers work better with binary numbers... user:Maria Renee Jenkins, Sunday, April 28, 2002 It is our task to follow standards, not ignore them. The plain reality is, majority usage for MB is the binary MB, and I ain't talking about a small majority either. The fact that "there are 1024 somethingorothers in a KB" is one of the very few things that Joe Average computer user really ''does'' understand. And where did this Wikipedia "policy" come from all of a sudden? It's a really bad idea. User:Tannin 13:18, 19 Sep 2003 (UTC) I picked the "policy" since after my question above, nobody expressed an opinion either way for quite some time. The policy does not ignore standards, but follows them. I agree with your assessment of majority usage, but I don't think it is a large majority: the average computer user encounters megabytes in four contexts: * hard drive capacity * memory size * file size * bandwidth Decimal megabytes are used in two of the four contexts. If you prefer we pick the opposite policy, then you need to invent a name for 106 bytes, and you need to make the case why Wikipedia should ignore international standards in favor of this new name. User:AxelBoldt 17:14, 21 Sep 2003 (UTC) :These are all good reasons to ''not'' take sides by pretending that one of the two major meanings of the word doesn't exist or is ''wrong''. Rather, when the difference matters, be explicit about the usage of the term. --User:Brion VIBBER 17:49, 21 Sep 2003 (UTC) ::I don't think that the sentence "This is the definition used in Wikipedia" pretends that the other meaning doesn't exist or is wrong; it just fixes a convention to avoid having to change many links from "megabyte" to "megabyte (i.e. 106 bytes)" or "megabyte (i.e. 220 bytes)". But I can live with that as well. User:AxelBoldt 09:29, 22 Sep 2003 (UTC) :::Proclaiming one to be the only definition used here would seem to require tracking down all uses of the term, deciding ''for sure'' which meaning was meant (possibly requiring further research), and either leaving it or changing it to "mebibyte". Letting normal usage stand ''allows'' further clarification where details are known and relevant. --User:Brion VIBBER 09:38, 22 Sep 2003 (UTC) == Binary million -vs- decimal million == After some double-checking and extensive web searching, it appears that the overwhelming majority consider a MegaByte to be a binary million, i.e. 10^20. As far as I can see, only hard drive and floppy drive manufacturers use a decimal million (10^6), primarily for marketing/misleading reasons. [http://www.makeitsimple.com/sections.php?artid=10 example]. I've worked in IT for 10 years, and I've never even heard of a Mebibyte. Regards, --User:Rebroad 19:58, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC) Just realised that this article has been misleading since May 2003 ([http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Megabyte&diff=894783&oldid=894719 see]) when the more commonly used usage was moved to 2nd in the list. --User:Rebroad 20:06, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC) This was pretty clearly not NPOV, reproducing the "it's a conspiracy by hard drive manufacturers" line. I've added some unambiguous cases--for instance, the CD standard uses base 2, whereas the DVD standards use base 10. I've also tried to make it clear that hard drive manufacturers almost always use base 10, while OS software and humans mostly use base 2. As a final note, I've added a comment about MHz to go along with the discussion of Mb, making it clear that although people measure RAM capacity in base-2, they measure RAM speed in base 10. Now, can we all switch to SI and stop being needlessly confusing? Please? User:Metamatic 21:05, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC) :Nooo! We must adamantly resist all attempts to correct that which we have grown comfortable with! :-) :''“Megabytes have always been base 2, and always been written as MB”, they sneer. “Everyone knows that 1MB is 1024KB, unless you’re talking about DVDs, or reading manufacturer specs for a hard drive, and that’s just the hard drive manufacturers being stupid. Everyone knows that ‘K’ on a computer means 1024; except for speeds, where it means 1000, except for file download speeds where it means 1024, except when it’s the speed of your modem, when it’s 1000. Everyone knows that. What, are you stupid?”'' [http://www.xciv.org/~meta/2005/02/25/#2005-02-23-units] - User:Omegatron 15:33, Jun 17, 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
M
MA | MB | MC | MD | ME | MF | MG | MH | MI | MJ | MK | ML | MN | MO | MP | MR | MS | MT | MU | MW | MX | MY | MZ |Words begining with Megabyte:
MegaByte
Megabyte
Megabyte
Megabyte73
Megabyte73
Megabytes
Megabytes_per_second
Megabyte_per_second
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